Mr. Eamonn Brennan:

I will answer the questions. If there are further hearings I would respectfully suggest that the committee should invite the principals of the company before it. We seem to be going around in a circle and there is frustration with the process. Our board is directing that we cannot take on the liability of this. Our legal advice is that if we took on liability for this, we would effectively secure a preferential creditor in the company; in effect, we would treat one class of creditor better than another, even when we have absolutely no liability. I have huge sympathy for the families but the point has been made that bills cannot be paid on sympathy. I do not want to mislead the Deputy but we are not in a position to hope to do what he mentions. Otherwise, the Revenue Commissioners and everybody else would be asking where the process would stop.

There should be a broader solution. I respectfully suggest that the committee should bring the principals of the company before it to detail what was done and where the money went. We had audited accounts from Cooney Carey signed off up to August 2011. Somebody indicated that we did not look at Pilot Training College but we did more than that by examining Shemburn, the consolidated holding company. Looking at PTC would have been irrelevant as the consolidated structure is the larger company. There were checks and we asked our accountants to consider the matter. We got statements etc. from Cooney Carey right up to then. If we cannot rely on audited accounts, statements and representations by auditors, we cannot know what we are at.